Friday, 14 September 2001 | Metal detector

When I arrived last night, the airport was eerily quiet; counters were darkened, unused planes sat in rows behind fences lining the road, a lonely tow-truck circled past the front of the building, patroling for empty and suspicious automobiles. The only place where people were gathered was in front of the Delta counter, at the metal detector, and at the few gates from where planes would be taking off. People were quiet but seemed more relaxed than I expected. They certainly appeared to be more relaxed than I quietly felt. Maybe it was the lack of news coverage in the airport (ironically but understandably the one place you couldn't get updates about the hijackings). Martin and Nate and I had waited out a delay outside the airport, at a bar with a TV, where we were fed the first half of the story about the people arrested at New York airports for having knives and box cutters.

I'm in Raleigh now, rather than Wyoming (or whevever I would be, had I chosen to drive). By the time we flew the second leg of the trip Friday morning, the Atlanta airport seemed close to normal, and you could almost forget to be nervous.

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Here's an interesting message [dead link] regarding Tuesday's mess (and the mess that will follow). It's difficult to move out of this. I can't imagine what it must be like for those who were really affected.